Long Beach to Make ADA Improvements Under Class Action Settlement

The City of Long Beach has reportedly reached a class action settlement over allegations that the city’s pedestrian pathways have a number of accessibility issues for individuals with disabilities.

According to the Long Beach class action lawsuit, these issues pose pedestrian safety concerns that do not meet the standards set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA settlement was preliminarily approved on April 10.

Under the terms of the Long Beach ADA class action settlement, Long Beach has agreed to make certain improvements that will make pedestrian pathways such as sidewalks and crosswalks safer and more accessible for people with disabilities.

Some of the improvements will include retrofitting up to 16,000 existing curb ramps that are not in compliance with accessibility standards and constructing up to 4,500 missing curb ramps. The City of Long Beach has also agreed to provide remediation of up to $125 million for repairs to pedestrian pathways over the next 30 years.

The Long Beach ADA settlement also provides for the continuation of the city’s Access Request Program and will allocate about $5 million over 10 years to make repairs that are reported by the disability community in Long Beach.

The funds to pay for the repairs and improvements will reportedly come from a combination of sources, including the gas tax, community development block grants, transportation fund and general fund money. The amount necessary to pay for the repairs will be determined after an independent party carries out a sidewalk survey to determine the extent of the repairs and improvements necessary to bring the city into ADA compliance.

The Long Beach class action settlement also requires public meetings to be held within a year after the date the evaluation is completed. Long Beach must maintain the employment of an ADA coordinator over the next few years in order to help make the necessary repairs and improvements. Quarterly and annual inspections will also be performed by the plaintiffs’ counsel, according to the class action settlement documents.

Five plaintiffs originally filed the ADA class action lawsuit against Long Beach in 2014. In September 2015, a judge granted Class certification to the ADA lawsuit.

Long Beach had reportedly been spending around $3 million per year on sidewalk improvements, some of which were ADA improvements. However, the plaintiffs argued these repairs were insufficient to meet the accessibility needs of the disabled community.

“This agreement furthers the integration mandate of the ADA and other disability access laws, and ensures that people with mobility disabilities will no longer need to risk their lives traveling in the streets because a curb ramp is missing or a sidewalk is cracked,” Andrew Lee, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement printed in the Long Beach Post.

The plaintiffs are represented by Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho.

The Long Beach ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Hector Ochoa, et al. v. City of Long Beach, et al., Case No. 2:14-cv-04307-DSF-FFM, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.